Week #16 (08/12/2013 - 08/18/2013) - Last Week in Panama

On Monday I went to my last doctor's appointment before leaving to get my last shot against some disease I don't know its name. There was something going on in Calle 50 on our way to the hospital and police cars where heading towards us. Policemen were wearing gas masks and had body shields, it looks like some professors were protesting in front of a government building. It took us over an hour to get to the hospital but we made it, I got my shot and then we headed back home. On our way home we stopped by Blockbuster so I could rent some movies and store them in my external memory to take to Tampa but I didn't found anything I liked. For dinner we had some pizza. Talking about food, my mouth still hurts and it's very difficult for me to talk or smile. It looks like I have a couple of cuts in the edges of my lips because of the dryness the day of the surgery and that hurts too.

I forgot to mention that over the weekend I finished reading "45 pounds" by K.A. Barson, and it was really hmm bad. I give it 2.5 stars. After that I started reading "This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper, this book is kind of the ones with a low start, kind of "It's Kind of a Funny Story". Today, Tuesday, Rod came by and we hung out as always :) He had to leave early though because he had a final project to begin and to finish by tonight, two projects actually.

Wednesday was a really fun day! I went to my grandpa's to use his studio to take pictures with Alex (which you can see HERE), and we had a lot of fun :) This was like our farewell activity for the two of us. Panama's traffic was horrible and I had to pick up Alex, I had to go all the way to the Cinta Costera to end up in Calle 50 to go back to Via Israel to come back to Calle 50 and cross to Via Porras, Panama's traffic is madness itself, it's not just rush hour it's every time, everyday. After the shoot I took Alex home and went back to my grandparent's to dinner with the excuse that there would be a traffic jam, I actually did it because I wanted to spent time with them before leaving. I played Hay Day with Patty and Apo until the pizza arrived and after having dinner Tia Marilu, Patty, and I played some more. Before leaving Acun and Apo gave me a big check as a gift, Acun said that it's to be used for a car when I come back. But I'm thinking in using it to my master's degree. Either way, I'm very thankful :) On my way back home I stopped by "La Mexicanita" (my favorite restaurant in the whole world) to make and order for tomorrow's farewell dinner at my house.

Thursday was my FAREWELL PARTY! A bunch of my friends came by to my house, about 25 of them, and we hung out :) Alex came over early so that she could help me with the shopping and cleaning, so before we started working we ate some lunch: KFC. We went driving because the delivery system is stressful. We both ate a Famous Bowl (my favorite dish at KFC). When we came back Rod was already here, so we ate and then went to Riba Smith to buy some snacks and drinks. We ended buying about 6 bottles of 2L Sodas, two bottles of 2L iced tea and about a gazillion packages of different flavored Oreos. After that on our way home we saw the aftermath of an accident: a police motorcyclist on the ground without a shoe and complaining about his neck next to a Toyota Yaris with the rear part bumped. I've never witness car accidents, and I wish I'll never do. At 5:40 we went out again to pick up the order of Mexican Food from my favorite restaurant, the order was supposed to be ready by 6 and they ended up finishing it at 6:40. I was okay but Alex was kind of steamed haha. We also bumped into Ambar, Tommy and Andrew at the restaurant because they were picking up food at Nora Express (dumpling place). When all of us got home the spilling began. The tres leches cake Rod bought as a surprise, spilled on the back seat of Andrew's car; the pico de gallo spilled on our way from my car to the door and soaked Rod's socks and my arm. We finally went up and Vivianne and Alfonso were already there. We set up the food and then the party started! We talked, played heads up, ate, and laugh. I didn't really got emotional but I will really miss them all. Shey got sick during the party and after she left Rod went to the elevator and saw puke all over.. We believe it was her but she hasn''t said a word about that. Zhanzhy stayed overnight because she had no way to go home. It's so funny how Zhanzhy is like my lost sister, I feel so comfortable with her :)

On Friday Zhanzhy woke me up at 8 AM so say good bye, I asked her to do that because it's going to be the last time I see her until holidays. How cute is that she left a note on my laptop saying that she loved me and that she's going to miss me? :) At 11 AM I went to the dentist, again, to have my stitches taken out. It didn't hurt but it wasn't comfortable either. At 1 in the afternoon I went with Rod to the Causeway, and we drove the whole thing until we decided to eat at Pencas. I was craving clams really bad so I order that as my main dish along with fried yucca, Rod ordered the same, which I think is the first time we've ordered exactly the same thing! After lunch we stopped by Arrocha and bought each one a frame so we could put a picture of us, which I'll be taking with me to college. We were going to stop by Popo's after Arrocha to say my last good bye but my mom didn't let me because of traffic. I really wanted to present Rod and my grandma. I think she would be the only grandparent who would actually and genuinely like Rod. Anyway.. Rod came to my house and we hung out. We did a lot of things for half an afternoon. We played the cups song and did our own song, we watched YouTube videos, played Color Sheep and talked. I didn't get emotional but I almost cracked because I suddenly realized the absence he was going to make in my life for the next four months. After Rod left I bought my MacBook Pro! I'm so excited for that!

FAREWELL PARTY!

Yesterday I had a farewell party because I'll be leaving for Tampa this Sunday! And a lot of my closest friends came by :) We hung out, played heads up, ate Mexican Food from "La Mexicanita", and also learned how to do the cup song! I love my friends and I will miss them a lot, hopefully December will come by pretty soon :) Here are from pics from last night:

Week #14 (07/29/2013 - 08/04/2013) - Finals Week

Actually is not Finals Week, it's just Finals Day which is Tuesday. On Monday I was suppose to wake up at 9 AM but I suddenly woke up at 10:30. I had a blurry memory of heavy rain in the morning and Alex reassured me of that so that must have been the reason why I overslept. Either way I started studying trigonometry after watching my daily vlogs and the Kardashians and after procrastinating for three days I finished the material in half an hour.. like are you f kidding me? I was stressed for three days about it and ended up the material in half an hour. This past weekend one of the families of the vlogs I watch had their baby! Baby Ollie was born on July 27th and that vlog made me cry (Bumps Along the Way). Also over the weekend we went for lunch to Multiplaza as always and Mackay tagged along with Cristy.. I totally dislike him. I mean, if Cristy likes him it's okay and I'm happy for her, but Mackay is so strongly opinionated it stresses me... He lacks empathy to another level. I can't wait til Tuesday afternoon to finally have my well deserved three week vacation! I've been waiting for this moment 7 months! I took a break after studying trigonometry and next thing I know it's already 4 in the afternoon! How did time passed so quickly?! By 5 PM I went to Rod's because Andrew was gonna be there to help me with my precalculus extra credit. We did that and then we played some poker. All of the guys were there, Alfonso, Keny, Andrew, Tommy and Rod. We ate Chinese for dinner and I came home by 8 PM.

Tuesday I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to be early for my precalculus final so I could review with Greta. I did well on the test and after that Alex and I were supposed to go get some lunch but she bailed on me.. I stuck around with nothing to do... Then it was the trigonometry final which I did well to, one surprising thing is that on one problem I couldn't get the right answer, I tried and tried and out of nowhere I just typed the numbers in the calculator without any parenthesis, straight out of the formula AND IT WORKED! I don't care it took me so long as long as I got it right. After finals Alex had told me to go get some yogurt, and when I came out I saw that she was chatting in our friend's group and I texted her where was she, she took a couple of minutes to return my text and guess what... She bailed me again for this outing, which she proposed in the beginning. She told me she would explain later what happened but I saw a Last Seen from after we talked and she hasn't explained... If it was an emergency it's okay with me, but I feel very sad because I really wanted to hang out with her. On a happy note: I'M ON VACATIONS!! I can't believe the day has finally come, I'm SO HAPPY! Alex called me later on the day and she explained to me that she had to leave to pick up some pair of pants she needs for a photoshoot.. My steam cooled off and we started talking the usual. For dinner my family and I went to "La Mexicanita", my favorite restaurant ever! This time the beans were a little too liquid though.

Wednesday: First official day of my summer vacations. It started with errands in the morning, I finally picked up my new credit card woohoo! I also started reading "The Lost Hero" by Rick Riordan which is a series called The Heroes of Olympus that follows the Percy Jackson series. It's 3 in the afternoon and there's a severe thunderstorm, I can still see a few sun rays but other than that it's full thunders and rain. It rained pretty hard for about half an hour, now it's all dark and cold. I cleaned my room after accumulating two laundry baskets and 5 pairs of shoes laying around. I also started packing things I won't use until Tampa into a suitcase, just to scratch those items off my list. I'm addicted to packing. For the last two days Austin and Enrique have been practicing because they have a concert on their church this Sunday, right now they were playing "Hot n Cold" from Katy Perry and the singer, Austin's friend from school, is a really good singer. He has one of those different male voices. 

On Thursday I went out my my mom, dad and my Popo (dad's mom) to lunch. My grandma wanted to see me before I left for college and thus we went to Lenos & Carbon in Albrook Mall. After lunch we stopped by the super market to buy her some ice cream and bread since it's difficult for her to do errands. She told me some relatives wanted her to move to Chorrera because they said her family here didn't appreciate her, I could see the hurt in her eyes like if she knew that was true but tried to denied it. It breaks my heart because I don't spend much time with her, I always say I will but I never do. I should make a quick stop before leaving and bring her some ice cream (her favorite: Casa Blanca) and hot dog bread (her favorite breakfast). Today I also learned that Ambar received the Taiwan Scholarship! I'm so excited for her, what a great birthday present haha. 

On Friday I went to The Plaza in Ciudad del Saber to grab a yogurt with Alex and make some errands to the bank. Yesterday my Popo gave me some money for college and I decided to deposit it on my account. Besides that I also had a piggy bank full of coins which I also deposited, i.e. headache for the lady who has to count them. I had to use my mom's car because my dad took the Toyota because he had to go to the dentist, thankfully I did great with the car - no accidents. USF announced that they will not be accepting Visa cards for Tuition and Fees payments so my mom is now going nuts over getting a Master Card. For dinner I planned to eat a salmon and some broccoli, but the minute I saw the broccoli I chickened out! Instead I ended up eating a fish burger, yummy. 

Ambar's 19th Birthday Party!

Ambar, or Pachi as I like to call her, turned 19 yesterday (July 27th) and we celebrated her birthday today at Anny's. We ate Mexican and Chinese food, and for the birthday cake I bought a Cheesecake Blizzard from Dairy Queen and we wrote "Estas vieja Ambar". We played "Heads Up" on my iPad and ended the day singing and listening to new tunes on YouTube. I had a lot of fun and hadn't realized how much I missed my girls.